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110-456: The history of the language during this stage is fused with the blooming of Romanian literature , the influence of great writers often cited along the efforts of institutions, mainly the Romanian Academy , as the main factors for standardization. Some researchers place the end of this last period between the end of Second World War and the beginning of " Socialist Period ", thus separating

220-609: A Romantic perspective. His literary style, difficult to pin down to one of the cultural currents of his century, influenced generations after, including the late 19th century poet Mihai Eminescu . Like Kogălniceanu, he was less receptive to the previous generation's proposals of modernising the language, looking to adopt features of the Wallachian style into his own- a process initiated by Constantin Negruzzi before him, which by mid-century had an effect on Wallachian scholars who reciprocated

330-661: A transitional writing system was introduced which retained certain Cyrillic letters for specific Romanian sounds. For instance, the Romanian mid central vowel (ə) was represented by the Cyrillic letter ⟨ Ъ ⟩ , and the voiceless palato-alveolar fricative (ʃ) by the letter ⟨ ш ⟩ . A pure Latin writing system was introduced by law in Wallachia in 1860 and then in 1862 in Moldavia . The main change brought by

440-561: A " Balkan linguistic union ". There are some further common features of Albanian and Romanian . Scholars assume that Albanian was closely related to the likely Thracian or Thraco-Dacian substrate languages , whose Romanization gave rise to the development of Romanian, or descends from it. Slavic languages influenced the development of Romanian for centuries. Romanian borrowed hundreds of words from Slavic languages and Slavic influence can be detected in Romanian phonology and morphology . Romanians also adopted Old Church Slavonic as

550-499: A French system. Several Romanian language schools were established in Macedonia to support the use of the language. A few years after the introduction of advanced educational institutions, the main academic forum was established. Several scholars are credited with the idea or the continuous support for the creation of the single forum among them Gheorghe Asachi , the leading figure of early Moldavian education, and Ion Heliade Rădulescu ,

660-630: A Hagiographical text by Grigore Țamblâc, all being dated between 1385 and 1391. Also by the 15th century many copies of medieval Slavonic texts have been created by the scribes of the Danubian Principalities. In the meantime, numerous Slavonic and Greek translations of popular medieval romances were in circulation across the Danubian Principalities , like the Alexander Romance and Barlaam and Josaphat . Particularly of note

770-539: A Moldavian Bishop, in 1673, published the first Romanian metrical psalter, the earliest collection of poems written in Romanian. Early efforts to publish the Bible in Romanian started with the 1582 printing in the small town of Orăștie of the so-called Palia de la Orăștie – a translation of the first books of the Old Testament – by Deacon Șerban (a son of the above-mentioned Deacon Coresi ) and Marien Diacul (Marien

880-628: A Prințipatului Moldovei (1839). With the end of the Phanariote epoch , the adoption of the Regulamentul Organic , and the establishment of Romanian as the main literary language of Wallachia and Moldavia the transitional period ended. The modern period partly overlapped with what is called the Golden Age of Romanian literature. The drop in importance of Old Church Slavonic and the Church language,

990-593: A Romance language it really is". He argues that some syntactic features also demonstrate how Romanian is "gradually returning to the Romance fold". The revival of the true infinitive and the gradual disappearance of use of reflexive verbs in impersonal passive situations are attributed by scholars to the influence of Western Romance languages. Romanian has a tendency to replace the -uri ending of plural of neuter (or rather ambigeneric) nouns with -e especially in written language. Words ending with -e most probably enjoy

1100-410: A clear use in Romanian. Rădulescu proposed a list of 29 letters: А, Б, В, Д, Г, Ԑ, Ж, Є, Ӡ, Ї, К, Л, М, И, О, П, Р, С, Т, Ꙋ, Ф, Ц, Х, Ч, Ш, Щ, Ъ, Џ, Ѱ, Ѵ, which he identified during his pedagogic activity as the more useful for his students. However, even in his own publication Curierul românesc from 1829 and 1830 many of the letters rejected by Rădulescu reappeared. The difficulty of putting in practice

1210-511: A common Proto-Romanian language . Romanian is divided into two main dialects, with a northern dialect spoken in Moldavia , northern Transylvania , Maramureș and Banat , and a southern dialect in Wallachia , but transitional variants also exist in Oltenia and Transylvania. The origin of the Romanians is still subject to scholarly debates. The core of the debate is the continuous presence of

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1320-567: A complex system of philosophy, still not perfectly understood today. Eliade is today considered the greatest historian in the field of religions. His novels reveal a mystical, pre-Christian symbolism paving the way for contemporary Romanian art. Born in Romania, Tristan Tzara , a poet and essayist, is the main founder of Dada , a nihilistic revolutionary movement in the arts, and may have been responsible for its name (Romanian for "Yes yes"). Later he abandoned nihilism for Surrealism and Marxism . For

1430-427: A higher status, because many of them were borrowed from Romance languages, according to Mallinson. Linguist Mioara Avram highlights the recent influence of English which, although a Germanic language, has a significant Romance component of French origin, as well as numerous Latin etymological lexemes , and argues that contemporary English loans continue indirectly the old re-latinization or re-romanization process of

1540-689: A recurring personality in the development of Modern Romanian. The formal proposal was made and fulfilled by C. A. Rosetti , then the minister of Public Instruction, and in 1/13 April 1866 the Societatea Academică Română was created. The institution will be the main stage for the academic debate between etymologizing (Latinizing) and broadly phonemic approaches to standards of writing. Tendencies in writing such as Timotei Cipariu's noting of letters Ă, Î, Ș, and Ț with Latin characters without comma or Rădulescu's proposal of writing /k/ as qu, é and ó for /ea/ and /oa/ diphthongs were debated and in 1869

1650-539: A similar endeavour was taken by Gheorghe Asachi , a friendly figure of the Transylvanian School , an opponent of the Phanariote regime, and an admirer of Petrarch and Moldavian chroniclers. Asachi oscillated between returning to the archaic language of the religious writings, which he saw as a solution to the confusing tendencies of modernizing, and standardizing the language, including the addition of neologisms by

1760-602: A single responsible institution. His political orientation towards Russia allowed him to be involved in the creation of the Moldavian Regulamentul Organic , a constitutional-like set of laws during the Russian protectorate, and the publishing of the Romanian language magazine Albina Românească , the first of its kind in Moldavia. Asachi went on to publish the supplements Alăuta Românească (1837–1838) and Foaea Sătească

1870-640: A style characteristic of both influences. Translations from Western writers, for example Vasile Pogor's translation of Voltaire's La Henriade , became more frequent with this generation. The main contribution to the beginning of modern Romania was taken by the Transylvanian School , a current developed within the Romanian Greek Catholic Church community from the Hapsburg territory . "The Coryphaei" of this cultural movement, Micu-Klein , Gheorghe Șincai , Petru Maior and Ion Budai-Deleanu , took up

1980-625: A variety of themes, including historical novels , novels depicting rural life , war , romantic love , social class and existential themes . Traditional society and recent political events influenced works such as Liviu Rebreanu 's Răscoala ("The Uprising", 1932), which was inspired by the 1907 Romanian Peasants' Revolt , and Pădurea Spânzuraților (" Forest of the Hanged "), published in 1922 and inspired by Romanian participation in World War I . Rebreanu's novel Ion , published in 1920, presents

2090-407: Is Neacșu's Letter written in 1521, to the jude ("judge and mayor") of Brașov , Hans Benkner. The earliest books in Romanian were translated from Slavonic religious texts in the 15th century. Psaltirea Hurmuzaki , Codicele Voronețean , Psaltirea Voronețeană , Psaltirea Scheiană , and others are religious texts from Moldavia that carry evidence of being translations of manuscripts written in

2200-560: Is The Teachings of Neagoe Basarab to his son Theodosie: a series of teachings on morality and politics , written between 1519 and 1521, by the Wallachian Lord Neagoe Basarab , a work written in the spirit of the Renaissance and considered one of the oldest great works of Southeastern European literature. Dutch Renaissance and Golden Age The earliest surviving document in Romanian that can be precisely dated

2310-775: Is a Romance language with about 25 million native speakers. It is the official language of Romania and Moldova and has a co-official status in Vojvodina (in Serbia). Ethnic Romanians also live in Ukraine and Hungary. Significant Romanian diasporas developed in other European countries (especially in Italy and Spain) and in North America, Australia and Israel. Romanian is closely related to three other Eastern Romance languages, Aromanian , Megleno-Romanian and Istro-Romanian , all descending from

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2420-439: Is another complex personality of Romanian literature: novelist, playwright, poet, literary critic and historian, essayist, journalist. He published authoritative monographs about Eminescu and Creangă, and a monumental (almost 1,000 pages in quarto) history of Romanian literature from its origin to the time of his writing (1941). He is also the author of the novel Enigma Otliei ("The Enigma of Otilia"). An important realist writer

2530-435: Is considered to be Manoil (published in 1855) by Dimitrie Bolintineanu (if one excludes from the definition of novel the allegorical literary work Istoria ieroglifică by Dimitrie Cantemir , which was written between 1703 - 1705). Bolintineanu also published the novel Elena (1862). However these two novels are largely forgotten, although they are considered relevant from the point of view of describing Romanian society in

2640-471: Is one of the best known examples of Romanian folk literature. The Script of Old Church Slavonic began to be used in the territories of current day Romania as early as the 10th Century, with the oldest surviving manuscripts being dated as far back as the 12th Century. The earliest dated texts in Slavonic, originally from Wallachia and Moldavia, consist of a series of Religious Songs by Nicodim & Filotei and

2750-634: The Filiki Eteria in the Danubian Principalities and with this event, the end of the Greek language branch of the Princely Academy of Bucharest that became Saint Sava Academy , the institution where Ion Heliade Rădulescu and Eufrosin Poteca promoted the usage of Romanian. Rădulescu, an adept at introducing neologisms into the language, especially from Italian which he saw as a more modern cultural model than

2860-581: The Roman à clef A Hieroglyphic History in 1705. In 18th century Transylvania, throughout the Blaj Schools of Inocențiu Micu-Klein , a Latinist and Enlightenment movement, the Școala Ardeleană emerged, producing philological studies of the Romantic origin of the Romanian language. Among the many works on Romanian history and the Romanian language by Samuil Micu-Klein , Gheorghe Șincai and Petru Maior ,

2970-455: The Romance character of the Romanian has to be regarded as an absolutely certain knowledge” as „from the outset Romanian was considered a Romance language”. As linguist Graham Mallinson emphasizes, "Romanian in its various forms retains enough of its Latin heritage at all linguistic levels to qualify for membership of the Romance family in its own right". The re-latinization evolved differently in

3080-554: The Romanian language or by any authors native to Romania . The development of Romanian literature has taken place in parallel with that of the rich Romanian folklore - lyric, epic, dramatic and didactic - which continues in modern times. Romanian oral literature includes doine (lyric songs), balade ( ballads ), hore (dance songs), colinde (carols), basme ( fairy tales ), snoave ( anecdotes ), vorbe ( proverbs ), and ghicitori ( riddles ). The folk pastoral ballad Miorița

3190-585: The Romanian language that happened in the 18th and 19th centuries. Romanian adopted a Latin-based alphabet to replace the Cyrillic script and borrowed many words from French as well as from Latin and Italian, in order to acquire the lexical tools necessary for modernization. This deliberate process coined words for recently introduced objects or concepts (neologisms), added Latinate synonyms for some Slavic and other loanwords , and strengthened some Romance syntactic features. Some linguistic researchers emphasize that

3300-512: The Theatre of the Absurd . Beyond ridiculing the most banal situations, Ionesco's plays depict in a tangible way the solitude of humans and the insignificance of one's existence. Cioran was a writer and philosopher. Some Romanian contemporary writers: Re-latinization of Romanian The re-latinization of Romanian (also known as re-romanization ) was the reinforcement of the Romance features of

3410-455: The University of Bucharest on 4 July 1864. In Transylvania the first university was founded in 1872, called Hungarian Royal Franz-Joseph University, but due to Magyarization policies Romanian was not included as a language of education. However, a chair for Romanian language and literature was permitted. The structure and model of the Romanian language institutions was inspired or implemented on

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3520-455: The relexification either of an ancient Balkan language or of a Slavic idiom, instead of directly developing from Vulgar Latin. Paul Wexler published a similar hypothesis in 1997. Linguist Anthony P. Grant writes that Wexler's hypothesis is not "completely convincing", stating that the "rise of Romanian still seems to be a case of language shift, analogous to the rise of English in England", with

3630-525: The "Heroic-comic-satiric Poem" Țiganiada by Ion Budai-Deleanu , can also be found, promoting democratic and enlightenment ideals. In Wallachia and Moldavia, the Enlightenment can be seen in the Poems and Prose of Iancu Văcărescu , Costache Conachi , and Dinicu Golescu . In 1829, in Wallachia , Ion Heliade Rădulescu founded the first Romanian-language Newspaper, Curierul Românesc , and cofounded

3740-573: The 1848 Revolutions in Wallachia and Moldavia as well as being involved in the events across the Carpathian range, in the Hapsburg Empire . The levelling effect of the French language in terms of lexical borrowing and the literary activities of personalities involved in the political life of all areas inhabited by Romanians brought the first signs of language standardization. One of the first to take up

3850-416: The 19th century. Certain prefixes were first directly inherited from Latin, but later their Latin root was also borrowed, thus "etymological doublets" appeared in Romanian. For instance, the prefix cu- descends from Latin con- , and the prefix stră- from extra- , but the original Latin prefixes are now widely used. The Roman script was introduced gradually between 1830 and 1860. Initially

3960-559: The Danube (which were under Roman rule for centuries). Scholars who refute these theories propose that the ethnogenesis of the Romanians started in the south-Danubian provinces and the Romanians' ancestors did not settle in the lands to the north of the Lower Danube before the 11th century. Romanian developed in territories which were isolated from other Romance languages for more than a thousand years. This geographic isolation gave rise to

4070-487: The French one, mainly through translations. Linguist Kim Schulte emphasizes that "the large number of words borrowed from other Romance languages over the last two centuries" gives Romanian lexicon "a distinctly Romance appearance". Mallinson likewise concludes that due to the re-latinization process modern Romanian "has attained, if not necessarily retained, a high level of Romance vocabulary, though raw lexical statistics fail to give an adequate picture of precisely how much

4180-643: The Latin model designed by the Transylvanian School , managed to break the monopoly on public press held by the authorities and published in 1829 Curierul Românesc with contributions from Heliade himself, Grigore Alexandrescu , Costache Negruzzi , Dimitrie Bolintineanu , Ioan Catina , Vasile Cârlova , and Iancu Văcărescu . A sample of text showcasing the etymologizing writing used by Rădulescu: Primi audi-vor quel sutteranu resunetu Și primi salta-vor afara din grôpa Sacri Poeți que prea ușôrâ țêrinâi Copere, și quâror puțin d'uman picioarele împlumbâ. In Moldavia

4290-474: The Latin-inherited "root words" from the Romanian groundstock. For instance, the loan translations bărbătesc and femeiesc (from the Romanian words for man and woman respectively) soon vanished to give place to the loanwords masculin and feminin as labels for two grammatical genders . On the other hand, the loanwords futur ("future") and pasat ("past") could not take roots against

4400-652: The Philharmonic Society which later created the National Theatre of Bucharest . Albina Românească , a similar publication to Curierul Românesc was started contemporaneously by Gheorghe Asachi in Moldavia . In the 1800s, the revolutionary ideas of nationalism spreading in Europe were also circulating among Romanians who desired national independence from the Ottoman Empire . These nationalistic attitudes led to

4510-646: The Princely Academies of Wallachia and Moldavia where the Greek language teaching branch was seconded by a Romanian language one. After the end of the Phanariote epoch the Romanian language branch remained the only one in use. Although named "academies", the two institutions - Saint Sava Academy in Bucharest and Academia Mihăileană from Iași - they offered only college level education. Those looking for higher education had to study abroad, mainly in France where hundreds of

Modern Romanian - Misplaced Pages Continue

4620-467: The Romance Languages (1836) Diez retains six languages of the Romance area which attract attention, in terms of their grammatical or literary significance: Italian and Romanian, Spanish and Portuguese, Provençal and French. All six languages have their first and common source in Latin, a language which is 'still intertwined with our civilization'. Harald Haarmann considers that any discussion about

4730-414: The Romanian principalities, with the work of teachers like Aaron Florian continuing the activity of another Romanian from Transylvania, Gheorghe Lazăr , spreading further to preeminent cultural personalities of the early 19th century like Ion Heliade Rădulescu and Nicolae Bălcescu . The first decades of the 19th century brought romantic enthusiasm to Romanian culture. The period saw the rise and end of

4840-551: The Romanian vocabulary with new words of Latin or Romance origin since the early 19th century. Ioana Moldovanu-Cenușă emphasizes the differences between the "Roman Westernization", which took place in Moldavia and Wallachia under the influences of the Age of Enlightenment , and the "re-latinization" carried out by the representatives of the Transylvanian School and of the "Latinist current". Historian Ioan-Aurel Pop points out that

4950-411: The Romanian words for fountain and land (modern Romanian fântână and țară ) should be rendered by fontana and tiera . They decided to replace Slavic loanwords with terms of Latin origin, even trying to get rid of the Romanian word for "and" ( și ), wrongly attributing a Slavic origin to it. They created portmanteau words , containing both Slavic and Latin roots, like răzbel from

5060-596: The Romanian's substratum equivalent to British Celtic , the Balkan Latin stratum similar to Anglo-Saxon , and the South Slavic superstratum equivalent to the Norman French role. Linguist Posner attributed to Friedrich Diez , who was one of the first German scholars systematically studying Romance philology, the opinion of Romanian ("Wallachian") being a semi-Romance language in the early 19th century. In his Grammar of

5170-566: The Romanian-populated areas. In Wallachia and Moldavia from 1760 to 1820–1830 the lexical influence of French and New Greek was the most influential, while in the Banat and Transylvania the Romanian language adopted words mainly from Latin and German languages. After 1830 the French language became the main source of the borrowings. When derivations of the Latin type-words are taken into account, research shows that “the proportion of

5280-608: The Romanians in the lands now forming Romania north of the Lower Danube . Scholars who propose that the Roman province of Dacia Trajana (which existed to the north of the river for about 165 years) was an important venue of the Romanians' ethnogenesis accept the continuity north of the Danube, a theory also supported by scholars who consider that the origins of the Romanians included territories located not only in Dacia, but also in areas south of

5390-647: The Scribe). Palia was translated from Latin by Bishop Mihail Tordaș et al. , the translation being checked for accuracy using Hungarian translations of the Bible. The entire Bible was not published in Romanian until the end of the 17th century, when the Metropolitanate's Press of Bucharest printed Biblia de la București ("The Bucharest Bible") in 1688, compiled by the Greceanu Brothers. In Transylvania , there

5500-459: The Slavic loanword război and the Latin term bellum (both meaning war). Scholars of this "Latinist school" (or "Latinist current") held extreme views in their works about the language and history of Romanians, for example in 1853, their leader, August Treboniu Laurian , started his History of the Romanians with the legendary founding of Rome in 753 BC. Laurian and Ioan Massim published

5610-808: The activity of the publication Sămănătorul , founded by George Coșbuc and Alexandru Vlahuță , and later under the editorial watch of historian Nicolae Iorga , a new literary movement formed. A movement concentrated on preserving traditional values and idealising rural life, a continuation Eminescu 's Romanticism. Among Sămănătorul 's authors were George Coșbuc a poet, translator, teacher, and journalist, best known for his verses describing, praising and eulogizing rural life, author of Pașa Hasan, Nunta Zamfirei and Moartea lui Fulger; but also Alexandru Vlahuță , Octavian Goga , Duiliu Zamfirescu , Ștefan O. Iosif, Barbu Ștefănescu Delavrancea , Ion Agârbiceanu and Alexandru Macedonski . Although Goga and Agârbiceanu have become later associated with Poporanism and

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5720-536: The adoption of the Romanian alphabet , the founding of universities in Iasi (1860) and Bucharest (1864), and the establishment of the Romanian Academic Society in 1866, which would then be later be renamed to the Romanian Academy . Although the modernizing current was initially led by the aristocratic and educated personalities of the Danubian Principalities, the profound changes of the early 19th century allowed

5830-424: The borrowings from Romance languages. In 1978, Alexandru Niculescu opted for the label occidentalizare romanică ("Romance Westernization"), while Vasile D. Țâra described the process in 1982 as the "Latin-Romance direction in the modernization of the Romanian literary language". Linguist Maria Aldea emphasizes that the term reromanizare is not adequate to describe the linguistic process which has enriched

5940-600: The cause of representing Romanian political rights and appealed to the Latin origin of the people and language as the main argument. Within this context, they devised the early Romanian alphabet based on Latin and mainly on etymologizing (Latinizing) principles. A sample of text from Elementa linguae daco-romanae sive valachicae showing the etymologizing features compared to a Latin version: Nu ê têmp se jáci în pat; scoala te, n'áuzi quum tuna ẛi trazneẛte / Non est tempus jacendi in lecto; eleva te, non audis que tonat et fulminat. The influence of their writings expanded to

6050-477: The changes of the time (post-Ottoman legal system, global development of new technologies and so on). This has also created doublets such as the pair dens from French dense vs des inherited from Latin. The syntax of the language changed from a model imitating the Old Church Slavonic one to a French language inspired type. Re-latinization influenced the grammar of Romanian as well, reanimating

6160-460: The classical Latin word for beautiful ( formosus ) can still be detected in Romanian frumos , Portuguese formoso and Spanish hermoso , but it was replaced by terms deriving from another Latin word, bellus in French ( beau ) and Italian ( bello ). Romanian shares linguistic features with the non-Romance languages of the Balkan Peninsula, which gave rise to the idea of

6270-568: The current stage of the Romanian language from the Modern one. Since the 16th century, Romanian language has been attested in its literary form . The early books and texts, written with the Romanian Cyrillic alphabet , were predominantly religious or historical. Personalities such as Ion Neculce , Miron Costin , Dimitrie Cantemir , and Constantin Cantacuzino , influenced by Humanism , promoted

6380-591: The development of a number of specific features. For instance, palatalized dental consonants (especially " z ") replaced the non-palatalized consonants in verbs. The number of Romanian words directly inherited from Latin (about 1,550–2,000, depending on the source) is similar to the other Romance languages, and is low in comparison with Medieval Greek (which contained about 3,000 Latin roots). Romanian along with Spanish and Portuguese retained more archaic lexical items from Latin than other Romance languages, most probably due to their peripheral position. For instance,

6490-459: The early nineteenth century, generalizes its use across all dialects and standard language replacing the Old Romanian methods of indicating agreement or acceptance through non-specialised words such as așa , adevărat , bine or the repetition of the verb in the question (for example " Scrii pe Misplaced Pages? " " Scriu! "). This change is due to the modeling of the Romanian syntax after

6600-529: The first time in its history, Romanian culture was fully connected to Western culture, while Dadaism is the first Romanian artistic and literary movement to become international. Dadaism and Surrealism are fundamental parts of the avant-garde , the most revolutionary form of modernism. The Romanian avant garde is very well represented by Ion Minulescu , Gherasim Luca , Urmuz , Perpessicius , Tristan Tzara, Grigore Cugler , Geo Bogza , Barbu Fundoianu , Gellu Naum , Ilarie Voronca , and Ion Vinea . Max Blecher

6710-505: The following in transitional alphabet, sometimes even alternating from Latin to Cyrillic from one page to another. In 1856 in Wallachia a law decreed the use of the Latin alphabet for schools and manuals, but retained the letter Ъ in the new system. Finally, on 8 February 1860, Ion Ghica decreed the use of the Latin alphabet in Wallachia, a model followed two years later by Moldavia. The earliest schools teaching in Romanian have their roots in

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6820-575: The gesture. The Pașoptist current had its critics, although limited in number and quality. The Bonjuriști (from French bonjour ) were opposed by what Călinescu called the Antibonjuriști. The Romanian Transitional Alphabet also known as the civil alphabet was used between 1828 and 1859. The idea belonged to Ion Heliade Rădulescu who made it public in his 1828 Gramatica românească . The old Cyrillic alphabet had 43 letters and, as scholars like Ienăchiță Văcărescu before him noticed, not all had

6930-457: The higher cultural language before the mundane blând , zilnic , cuviință , desfrânare , fără cusur , țărănesc , sătesc , orășenesc , a tendency that will remain active in the contemporary language. Romanian literature Romanian literature ( Romanian : Literatura română ) is the entirety of literature written by Romanian authors, although the term may also be used to refer to all literature written in

7040-717: The history of Moldavia. Following the example of Petro Movilă 's Kyiv Colegium, the Lords Matei Basarab and Vasile Lupu established Neoclassical schools such as the Schola Graeca et Latina and the Iași Colegiu. The most significant Romanian humanist was Dimitrie Cantemir , who wrote histories of Wallachia, Moldavia and the Ottoman Empire , and philosophical and religious treaties such as The Divan  [ ro ] , The Indescribable Image of Sacred Science , and The Little Compendium of Logic . He also wrote

7150-409: The history of all Romance languages. In Romanian scholarship, Alexandru Graur seems to have used the term relatinizare for the first time in an article in 1930, referring to the French influence on the development of the Romanian language. A year later, Sextil Pușcariu proposed a new term, reromanizare , most probably because he wanted to cover both the direct borrowings from Latin and of

7260-484: The lack of precision of the terms may lead to confusion, because the Latin character of the Romanian language was already noticed in the 15th century, placing it in the group of Romance languages. Educated Romanians started to regard Latin and Italian as linguistic models already in the 17th century. For instance, the loanword popor (from popolo , the Italian word for people) was borrowed in this century and added to

7370-706: The language during this period. The alphabet came under scrutiny initially in Transylvania where the main writing system was the Hungarian alphabet . The scholars of the Transylvanian School, educated in Catholic centers in Rome or Vienna , developed a writing system based on the Latin alphabet. These efforts were supported by a rich publishing activity, out of which the printing of the book Elementa linguae daco-romanae sive valachicae , written by Gheorghe Șincai and Samuil Micu-Klein

7480-448: The language of liturgy together with the Cyrillic script. In addition to Slavic influence Romanian borrowed words from other neighbouring languages such as Hungarian or Greek. The latter had a strong influence during the Phanariot era over Wallachia and Moldavia, with numerous words entering the southern sub-dialects. Of these only about 10% remained in usage from the 19th century onward, according to linguist László Gáldi. Flavio Biondo

7590-480: The life and difficulties of an ordinary peasant family in pre-war Romania, and later during the advent of Communism in Romania . His most important book remains Cel mai iubit dintre pământeni ("The Most Beloved of Earthlings"), a cruel description of communist society. Zaharia Stancu published his first important novel, Desculț (Barefoot), in 1948. Both Preda and Stancu depicted rural life in Southern Romania (both writers were born in Teleorman County ). Some of

7700-473: The life of peasants and intellectuals in early twentieth century Transylvania, and is said to be the most read Romanian novel. The dawn of the modern novel can be seen in Hortensia Papadat-Bengescu 's Concert din muzică de Bach ("A Bach Concert"), Camil Petrescu 's Ultima noapte de dragoste, întâia noapte de război ("The Last Night of Love, the First Night of War") and Mateiu Caragiale ’s Craii de Curtea-Veche ( “The Rakes of Old Court”). George Călinescu

7810-463: The likes of Luca Stroici and Petru Cercel , but it took another century for these ideas to fully flourish. This delay can be attributed to the continuation of Byzantine culture in the Danubian Principalities, or to the different social classes compared to Western Europe . During the 17th century via Poland and its Jesuit schools, having as representatives the likes of Grigore Ureche , Miron Costin , and Ion Neculce with their chronicles on

7920-847: The magazine Convorbiri Literare in1867, which eventually became the most important Romanian language literary publication in the 2nd half of the 19th century and 1st half of the 20th century. Through his links with Junimea, literary critic Titu Maiorescu set the direction of synchronizing Romanian literature both with other European literary movements and with Romanian folklore . Many outstanding Romanian writers, including George Coșbuc and Barbu Ştefănescu Delavrancea , published their works in Convorbiri Literare . Other notable authors of this era are Nicolae Bălcescu , Dimitrie Bolintineanu , Alecu Russo , Nicolae Filimon , Bogdan Petriceicu Hasdeu , Alexandru Odobescu , Grigore Alexandrescu and Petre Ispirescu . The first Romanian novel

8030-476: The mid-19th century. Nicolae Filimon is considered the father of the Romanian novel, having written the influential novel Ciocoii vechi și noi (1863). Among the many writers of Junimea , four are considered to be the Great Classics of Romanian Literature: the poet Mihai Eminescu , the satirist Ion Luca Caragiale , Ioan Slavici , and Ion Creangă . Mihai Eminescu is considered by many critics to be

8140-435: The middle-class, the bourgeoisie , to participate more actively in the cultural life. Educated at the schools and colleges of the older generation (Heliade's Saint Sava Academy or Asachi's Academia Mihăileană ), they embraced the period's growing influence of French language and culture . This superseded the previous cultural models of Latin and Italian in the spoken language. The leaders of this generation were active during

8250-666: The most important and influential Romanian poet . His lyrical poetry has its roots in Romanian folklore intertwined with Kantian and Schopenhauer 's philosophy and Buddhist cosmology . Among his greatest poems are the romantic poems Floare Albastră (1872) and Luceafărul , as well as the series of five philosophical poems called Letters (1881–1890). Ioan Slavici is one of the best known Romanian novella writers. His works can be categorized as Realist Bildungsromans . They are mainly set in Transylvania and have Moralistic psychological undertones. His most famous works are

8360-519: The most important poets are Nichita Stănescu , Marin Sorescu , Ana Blandiana , Leonid Dimov , and Ștefan Augustin Doinaș . An important novelist of this era was Radu Tudoran . Mircea Nedelciu was a short-story writer, novelist, essayist and literary critic. Outside Romania, Eugène Ionesco and Emil Cioran represented the national spirit at the highest level. Ionesco is one of the foremost playwrights of

8470-572: The new ideas of the French Revolution and Romantic Nationalism was Nicolae Bălcescu , a former student of Aaron Florian and Ion Heliade Rădulescu , and a leading member of the French-based association of Romanian students from both Principalities presided by Alphonse de Lamartine . His main publishing activity was in collaboration with August Treboniu Laurian at Magazin istoric pentru Dacia . His impact came from his political activities and

8580-522: The newly created synonyms viitor and trecut . Romance doublets —the coexistence of inherited Latin terms and Romance loanwords descending from the same Latin root—became characteristic elements of Romanian vocabulary during this period. For example, the inherited words for tomb ( mormânt ) and feeling ( simțământ ) co-exist with the Romance loanwords monument ("monument") and sentiment ("sentiment"). The spread of prefixes borrowed from other Romance languages and Latin also began in

8690-602: The novellas Moara cu noroc and Popa Tanda , and the novel Mara . Ion Luca Caragiale , wrote some of the best Romanian comedies , sketches and farces . Among his best known plays are O Noapte Furtunoasă (1879), O Scrisoare Pierdută (1884), and D-ale Carnavalului (1885). Ion Creangă wrote personalized retellings of folkloric tales, of which some of the best known are Povestea lui Harap Alb (1877), Păcală (1880), and Făt-Frumos fiul Iepei (1877). Of further note are his autobiographical memoirs from Amintiri din copilarie . From 1901 to 1910, through

8800-474: The other languages in the Banat-Hunedoara area. The first book printed in the Danubian Principalities was a Slavonic religious book, printed in 1508 at Dealu Monastery . The first book printed in the Romanian language was a Protestant catechism of Deacon Coresi in 1559, printed by Filip Moldoveanul . Other translations from Greek and Slavonic books were printed later in the 16th century. Dosoftei ,

8910-620: The period is known as the Phanariot epoch in Romanian history. The Greek dignitaries and their retinue brought with them significant Greek influence, mainly replacing the status of Old Church Slavonic and Romanian as literary languages. However, the growing influence of French as a prestige language was felt at the conversational level in this educated environment, opening access to the West for Romanian. In this context, early writers such as Ienăchiță Văcărescu , Dinicu Golescu , Costache Conachi developed

9020-465: The position of Romanian within the Romance philology was definitely decided with the Grammar of Diez. After the publication of his Grammar of the Romance Languages , Romanian is always listed among the Romance languages. Schippel observes that since Friedrich Diez' Grammar , the Romance character of Romanian wasn't seriously doubted. Werner Bahner concludes that “since the second half of the 19th century

9130-400: The post-1840 attempts by Transylvanian and Wallachian intellectuals to change the fabric of the Romanian language by introducing strong influences from Latin or other modern Romance languages was recognized by Garabet Ibrăileanu . Vasile Alecsandri , one of the most prolific writers of this generation, drew inspiration from the folkloric material and adapted it into his work through

9240-642: The posthumously published of Românii sub Mihai Vodă Viteazul in 1860 by Alexandru Odobescu , both imbued with a vision of the unity of all Romanians and implicitly the Romanian language. Mihail Kogălniceanu started his literary activity in Alăuta Românească , the supplement to the Moldavian magazine Albina Românească . He initiated in 1840 the first literary magazine, Dacia Literară , then Propășirea later renamed Foaie Științifică și Literară . Kogălniceanu's role in combating nationalist excesses, in particular

9350-420: The process in comparison to the Old Romanian stage is the adoption of the Latin alphabet (with some peculiarities). It also added a large number of loanwords from French, Italian, and Latin, representing nowadays about 20% of the entire lexis with semantic fields such as Modern World (58%), Law (35%), Emotions and Values (29%), or Clothing and Grooming (27%) being the main areas of distribution in accordance to

9460-695: The publication of their dictionary, but their exaggerated attempts to purify the language "provoked laughter and permanently discredited the Latinist school", thus their work was the last publication of the Latinist current. Wallachian and Moldavian writers who took a more conventional approach than the Transylvanian scholars were more successful. Re-latinisation reached the Wallachia in the early 19th century, when Ion Heliade Rădulescu introduced large numbers of Italian neologisms. Subsequently, literary figures at Iași , in Moldavia , began borrowing from French, at

9570-429: The publication, Viața Românească . After achieving national unity in 1918, Romanian literature entered what can be called a golden age , characterized by two opposite literary movements, Traditionalism and Modernism , and by the development of the Romanian novel. The interwar period of Romanian literature was a very rich and creative time, with numerous literary works being published during that period, addressing

9680-435: The re-orientation of the Romanians' intellectual life towards Western Europe. These scholars promoted the use of Latin letters in place of Cyrillic script , but the etymologizing (Latinizing) writing system that they developed never won popularity. Their spelling system was primarily designed to demonstrate the Latin roots of the Romanian words, ignoring their contemporary pronunciation. For instance, they proposed that

9790-466: The reorientation towards other languages as cultural model with the effect of losing hundreds of words from Modern Greek (of which only about 10% remained in usage from the 19th century onward, according to linguist László Gáldi) and Turkish , the use of the Romanian transitional alphabet and the advent of French as the major language of influence during and after what is called the Pașoptist generation (in

9900-561: The resulting group in the total vocabulary of Romanian remains, with nearly 80% of types-words in the dictionaries, about the same from the texts of 16/17th centuries to present Romanian”, concluding that “the vocabulary of Old Romanian is as Romanic as the vocabulary of the modern Romanian language”. Relatinization, as linguist Franz Rainer defines it, covers "not only borrowings from Latin at all its stages, including medieval and Neo-Latin , but also latinate formations taken from other European languages". This process can be detected during

10010-505: The revolutions of 1821 and 1848 . These ideas were mainly propagated by Mihail Kogălniceanu 's publication, Dacia Literară , which was adapting French Romanticism to Romanian writing with the purpose of creating an original national literature. The works of these writers, later dubbed Pașoptists (after the Revolution of 1848 ), have been shown not only to contain Romantic but also Neoclassical and Realist traits. Vasile Alecsandri

10120-569: The semantic field of Modern World - over 70%, more than half of them are from French) are the cumulative effects of the patchy process known as Re-Romanization, Re-Latinization, or Westernization of Romanian language. Historical events such as the 1848 Revolutions , the Crimean War , the Unification of Moldavia and Wallachia , and the Romanian War of Independence created favourable conditions for

10230-482: The so-called Pașoptist generation intellectuals did or in major university centres of Central Europe such as Vienna or Kraków , closer to home. With the Unification of Wallachia and Moldavia and the introduction of the Latin-based alphabet the stage was set for the establishment of advanced education. From the two academies, by decree of Alexandru Ioan Cuza , the University of Iași was founded on 26 October 1860 and

10340-495: The society decided in favour of Rădulescu's system. Only in 1881 did the Academy opt in favour of the phonemic principle. The use of Modern Romanian in these institutions, with the literary forms and neologisms, created an "intellectual style", adapted to the material and cultural reality of its time. Words like benign , cotidian , decență , depravare , impecabil , rural , rustic , urban took precedence in

10450-502: The synonymous neam and norod (a Hungarian and a Slavic loanword respectively), both still in use. Scholars of the Transylvanian School were the first to make concerted efforts to eliminate certain non-Romance features of the language in the late 18th century. They were Greek Catholic (or Uniate ) intellectuals tutored in Vienna and Rome who were determined to manifest the Latin origin of Romanians. Their activities contributed to

10560-412: The text the Cyrillic and Latin letters alternated. Kogălniceanu's Dacia literară and Propășirea had a moderate transitional alphabet, using the Latin D, E, M, N, Z. Only in 1855 România literară the letters Î, J, S, T will be added. The Transylvanian Foaie pentru minte, inimă și literatură and Gazeta de Transilvania , edited by Bariț and Cipariu , had the first page printed with Latin letters, then

10670-479: The time the language of high European culture and the language in which most of the bourgeois or aristocratic Romanians completed their higher education, at least until the founding of the first Romanian universities in the second half of the 19th century. In addition to direct borrowings from Romance languages, loan translations also appeared, although some of them could not survive. These were neologisms build as internal lexical formations, created by derivation of

10780-497: The transitional alphabet would last a few more years until in the same magazine, in 1835, the letters Î,R, S and Z replaced their Cyrillic equivalents. Another attempt four years later added hybrid letters combining Latin and Cyrillic features. In 1844 the editors decided to publish Curierul de ambe sexe with Latin characters only. Elsewhere, in 1840 the first page of Iordache Golescu's Băgări de seamă asupra canoanelor gramăticești had no less than 4 alphabets represented, and within

10890-471: The two volumes of their Dictionary of the Romanian Language and a glossary to it in the 1870s. They adopted a writing system which demonstrated the etymology of the words and purged the language of most non-Latin terms. The language that they promoted was artificial, bearing "only a vague resemblance to authentic Romanian". The Academic Society (the future Romanian Academy ) had initially commissioned

11000-449: The use of Romanian instead of the regular literary language, Old Church Slavonic . However, the Church language continued its influence in the field of religious writings, but writers, such as Archbishops Vaarlam and Dosoftei, were reserved in introducing the needed neologism from it. The first influences on the modern lexicon would come mostly from Latin , Greek , and Turkish , with an estimate of 850 new words from Modern Greek entering

11110-416: The use of the infinitive form of verbs and increasing the use of third conjugation verbs (those ending in –e such as a vinde - "to sell" or a crede - "to believe"). Occasionally, the changes to the language had an opposite effect: the particle da of Slavic origin (most likely Bulgarian and corresponding to English yes, French oui and so on), which appeared in Romanian language texts from

11220-399: The use of this term is inappropriate as it conflates the larger process of modernization of the language with the more extreme, and in the end unsuccessful, current of eliminating non-Latin influences, and, secondly, the term's lack of precision is susceptible to lead to confusion as the Latin character of the Romanian language had already been noticed since at least the 15th century. Romanian

11330-422: Was Mihail Sadoveanu , who wrote mainly novels which took place at various times in the history of Moldova . But probably the most important writers were Tudor Arghezi , Lucian Blaga , and Mircea Eliade . Arghezi revolutionized Romanian poetry 50 years after Eminescu, creating new pillars for the modern Romanian poem. Blaga, one of the country's most important artistic personalities, developed through his writings

11440-411: Was a novelist whose life was cut short by health problems. George Bacovia was a symbolist poet. While he initially belonged to the local Symbolist movement , his poetry came to be seen as a precursor of Romanian Modernism. Some important literary figures of this period were also active in other domains. Vasile Voiculescu was a Romanian poet, short-story writer, playwright, and physician. Ion Barbu

11550-404: Was a poet, as well as an important mathematician . Cezar Petrescu was a journalist, novelist, and children's writer. He is especially remembered for his children's book Fram, ursul polar ("Fram, the polar bear "; the circus animal character was named after Fram , the ship used by Fridtjof Nansen on his expeditions). Elena Farago was also a children's writer and poet. Ion Agârbiceanu

11660-681: Was a prolific writer, contributing to Romanian literature with poetry, prose, the Chirița plays (1850–1875), historical dramas such as Despot Vodă (1879), and collections of Romanian folklore. Also, taking inspiration from history, Constantin Negruzzi wrote the novella Alexandru Lăpușneanul (1840). Other Pașoptist writers include Vasile Cârlova , Grigore Alexandrescu , Anton Pann , and Alecu Donici . The literary circle Junimea , founded in Iași in 1863 by Titu Maiorescu , Petre P. Carp , Vasile Pogor , Theodor Rosetti and Iacob Negruzzi began publishing

11770-547: Was a writer, as well as a politician, theologian and Greek-Catholic priest. Gala Galaction was another writer, who was also an Eastern Orthodox clergyman and theologian. Other literary figures of this era include Mihail Sebastian , Ionel Teodoreanu , Panait Istrati , Gib Mihăescu , Anton Holban , Otilia Cazimir , Ion Pillat and George Topîrceanu . Marin Preda is an important post- World War II Romanian novelist. His novel, Moromeții ("The Moromete Family"), describes

11880-405: Was also an attestation of the explicit use of a Latin model, with the appearance of the first Romanian dictionary, Dictionarium Valachico-Latinum ( Caransebeș , about 1650), while the first grammar of the Romanian language written in Latin was Institutiones linguae Valachicae ( Crișana , circa 1770). The first appearances of humanism in Moldavia and Wallachia were in the 16th century with

11990-425: Was recognized as the marking point between the old and the modern periods of the language. However, due to differences between regions and social groups, the development of the written language into what is considered Modern Romanian was not immediate. Between 1711–1716 and 1821, a number of Phanariots were appointed as Hospodars ( voivodes or princes) in the Danubian Principalities ( Moldavia and Wallachia );

12100-517: Was the first scholar to have observed (in 1435) linguistic affinities between the Romanian and Italian languages, as well as their common Latin origin. When comparing Romanian with other Romance languages, linguists noticed its peculiarities which can be detected at all linguistic levels. Some scholars even believed that Romanian was a Slavic language. In the early 19th century, the Slovene linguist, Jernej Kopitar , suggested that Romanian emerged through

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